Page 358 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

2O4 Flowers and Grasses of Summer and The recent discovery of a preparatory
Sakai Hôitsu (1761 -1828) Autumn juxtaposes rain-soaked sum- painting for Flowers and Grasses of
Flowers and Grasses of Summer mer grasses and flowers with those Summer and Autumn, now in the
and Autumn blown by the autumn wind. In the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, has shed
summer screen (right) arching blades further light on this remarkable work
After 1821 of overgrown eulalia obscure our of art. The preparatory painting is
Pair of two-panel screens; ink, color,
view of drooping white lilies, while a mounted on a pair of folding screens
gold, and silver on paper rivulet caused by a sudden downpour and thus might be more accurately
Each 164 x 182 (6472 x 71 Vs) snakes through a swath of azure at called a cartoon than a sketch, owing
Tokyo National Museum the upper right. A vine of morning to its highly finished quality. On the
Important Cultural Property
glories spirals up one stalk of grass, back an inscription in Hóitsu's hand
its brilliant pink blossoms faintly describes the circumstances of the
• From his birth, Sakai Hóitsu was
echoing the bell-shaped lilies below. painting's commission: "Donated 357
extremely lucky in two regards. First, In the autumn screen (left), a strong according to the request of Lord Hito-
he was born into the Sakai clan, lords gust of wind scatters the russet ivy tsubashi of the First Rank, a prepar-
of the prosperous Himeji-han and
fudai-daimyo, who enjoyed an unusu- leaves, while a long vine of blossom- atory painting for a pair of two-fold
the
ground in
screens, with
silver ground. From
ing kudzu is carried off the
ally close relationship with the a graceful arc. Eulalia, now gone to brush of Kôrin, on the obverse Thun-
Tokugawa shogunate. Second, as the seed, bends to the left with the force der God, Wind God. On the reverse
younger brother of the sixteenth head of the strong breeze. Summer Grasses in Rain, Autumn
of the clan, he was unburdened by Grasses in Wind. Completed and sub-
the responsibilities expected of his These screens are a technical tour
mitted on the ninth day of the
older brother, free to lead a leisurely de force. Hóitsu has intricately inter- eleventh month in the fourth year
life concerned with the effete plea- woven the curving blades of eulalia of Bunsei [1821]."
sures of poetry and other cultural to create three-dimensional space out
pursuits. During his youth Hóitsu of flat surface pattern. He has brushed Lord Hitotsubashi of the First Rank
studied various painting styles, trying the veins of the eulalia, lilies, kudzu, was none other than Tokugawa Haru-
his hand at the ukiyoe manner of and ivy with slender lines of gold, sada, father of the eleventh Tokugawa
Utagawa Toyoharu and the Ch'ing adding to the stunning delicacy of the shogun, lenari. Harusada celebrated
court painting style of So Shiseki. An painting. The background of silver his seventieth birthday in 1820 and
avid poet, Hóitsu composed comic leaf, now tarnished, gives a sense of was promoted to Junior First Rank
kyóka verse for an illustrated album dimming evening light in summer in the same year. In 1822 Harusada's
by Kitagawa Utamaro. After his and crisp autumn air. granddaughter married Hóitsu's
brother's early death in 1797, Hóitsu Recognized today as Hóitsu's greatest nephew, raising another possibility
took Buddhist vows and entered a work, Flowers and Grasses of Summer for the painting's commission. Given
semiretirement of poetry composi- and Autumn was originally painted the proximity of the date recorded
tion and painting. on the preparatory painting, it is
on the reverse of Ogata Kórin's Gods
Hóitsu's personal discovery of the of Wind and Thunder (cat. 140). The two thought that Flowers and Grasses of
Summer and Autumn was created
to
Rinpa painting style is thought to compositions provide an elegant celebrate one of these auspicious
have occurred around 1801 -1804. contrast and a compelling connection. occasions. MM
It is also during this period that he Hóitsu's verdant motifs respond in
first used the name "Hóitsu." After their cool silver tones to the brilliant
studying the life and works of Kórin gold of Kórin's paintings and create a
through visits to Kyoto and corre- calming visual release from Kórin's
spondence with Kórin's descendants, energized figures. Their subject mat-
and later compiling the two-volume ter is also intrinsically connected.
One Hundred Paintings by Kôrin to com- As originally mounted, the summer
memorate the centenary of Kórin's grasses were on the reverse of the
death in 1815, Hóitsu devoted the thunder god panels, pounded down
remainder of his own life to cultivat- under the weight of a thundershower.
ing the art of Rinpa in Edo. Appropriately depicted on the reverse
of the wind god panels, eulalia, ivy,
and kudzu dance in the strong gusts
of autumn.